VICTORIA. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 794, 12 March 1853, Page 2

VICTORIA. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

General summary of the produce of the Gold Fields of Victoria, from commencement in August, 1851, to 31st December, 1852: —

From this estimate therefore, that is probably not materially incorrect in any one particular, and where errors may have a compensating operation, we have a quantity of gold amounting to nearly five millions of ounces, the whole of which, except some fractional proportion, has been raised from the soil of ! this colony within the period of sixteen months. I This quantity, namely, in exact figures, 4,890,926 ounces, gives us, by Troy weight, 407,577 pounds, or 203£ tons weight of gold. Of this proportion, I have estimated that only about the one-fourteenth part was raised during the year )851, leaving 4,548,7800z. as the produce of 1852. If we value this latter

produce at the rate of 755. per ounce, a rate which is to-day lower than the current market price, the result in round numbers is the amount of seventeen millions sterling, as the value of one year's produce of gold of this colony. From some late statistical information with regard to California, accounts we are now accustomed to regard as the overshadowing gold field of the world, I perceive that the official export of gold is stated at five millions of dollars, or about one million sterling per month, and that according to an estimate of the local press, there may be an additional unrecorded quantity amounting to one fourth more : making in toto for one year, a produce of gold to California of the value of fifteen millions sterling. The gold produce of California is probably still increasing, as well as that of Victoria ; but, considering the initiatory circumstances of the gold-fields of tliis colony, it seems not unreasonable to estimate that the produc6*of Victoria for the current year, without reference to the gold raised in the adjacent colonies, will at least equal and perhaps somewhat exceed that of California.

Ascertained. Estimated. Total. • Exported per official retain .... Ditto, overland to Adelaide .. .... Unrecorded export ; South Australia.. England. India, Sec. 2,120,121 ' 228,533 364,913 1W.680 327,913 465,000 67,000 20,000 " 2,348,654 829,913 244,680 347,91 i 50,000 50,000 Total exported On hand in the colony .... 3,219,160 602,000 3,812,160 1,069,766, 709,766 360,000 Total quantity produced 3,928,926 962,000 4,890,926 Proportion of Gold produced in 1851 Ditto in 1852 .. 145,146 3,783,780 200,000 762,000 345,1464,545,780